Nate Davis - On the Hargraves Pool (clip)

Nate Davis (ND): And then this is the pool. The money was donated by a lady named Ms. Cornelia Love. She donated the money to build the pool. It was named after Mr. A.D. Clark, and in the early 60s they built a pool so we had a safe place to swim. All we had [as a] place to swim – there was a little creek down by Umstead and the one down by Frank Porter Graham.

Alexander Stephens (AS): So one of those is the catfish?

ND: Catfish- was down by Umstead.

AS: And then ‘86 was the–

ND: Down by Frank Porter Graham.

AS: Yeah, because there was no, there was no pool, there was no public pool where Black folks could swim–

ND: No. Well we went to Pullen Park on Sunday. You know then again, people like Mr. Battle, somebody like that, loads some kids up, and we’d go on to Pullen Park for the Sunday, for the day. That’s where we were swimming at.

AS: Is that in Durham?

ND: Raleigh.

AS: Raleigh.

ND: It’s a park in Raleigh.

AS: So did this pool mean a lot to people when it was built?

ND: It meant a lot. It- I mean it was full of people everyday you know, not only to give us a safe place to come and swim, it gave some of the older high school students jobs as lifeguards. Today we can’t get enough African American lifeguards from Chapel Hill. It’s a good job for the summer. You know, we don’t pay fifteen dollars to twenty dollars an hour, but it’s a good job, good safe place for kids to go swimming.